Any Irish women’s team faces a formidable battle to achieve world championship standard, especially in a sport still in its infancy. Former DUUFC captain Linda Barry reflects on the long and winding road to Vancouver.
Any Irish women’s team faces a formidable battle to achieve world championship standard, especially in a sport still in its infancy. Former DUUFC captain Linda Barry reflects on the long and winding road to Vancouver.
Women’s ultimate in Ireland was transformed by the EUC07 experience, which saw an extraordinary advance on the previous international outings in terms of level of commitment, regularity of training and standard of play. Our 13th place finish at the world championships in Vancouver was a massive achievement for a country with such a small player base to call upon.
It had been unclear initially whether Ireland would even field a women’s team. A meeting was held in October 2007 to plan the upcoming season. It quickly became clear that there was eagerness to play women’s ultimate, to improve as individual players and not to let the once-every-four-year opportunity of participating in a global event pass us by.
A squad of 18 was selected over the course of two trial days in January. An incredible 35 women tried out over the course of these dates, coming from around Ireland and the UK to bid for a place on the Irish team. The line-up, announced at the beginning of February, included four players who have played in every international event since the Irish women’s team’s debut at EUC03, including Trinity’s Sparky Booker. Among the five new caps, three of whom were current or past Trinity players (Heather Barry, Finola Shannon and Katie Twidwell).
Leaving little time to sit back and revel in being selected for the national team, the fitness plan kicked in from the second week of February. There was something in there to turn everyone’s stomach – distance running, shuttles, pushups, fartleks – with the far off promise of washboard abs and a Zaytoon kebab to get us through the 24 weeks. Training began at the end of February with a session on deep cutting from men’s coach Cian Ó Móráin and a team night out, both of which gave rise to catch-phrases that would last the whole season. March turned out to be a rough month with disagreements about the training schedule, sessions cancelled due to flooded pitches and exasperation over paying so much money, putting ourselves through the gruelling fitness plan and never actually getting to play together!
In mid-April we had our first full weekend session with our new coach – Lucy Barnes of top women’s club Brutesquad, who happened to be a Trinity player for the year as well – and this marked a turning point. A new voice and an outside perspective boosted the work ethic at training and Lucy’s attention to detail, understanding of the game and time for each individual player couldn’t have come at a better time with our first warm-up tournament just around the corner.
Our competitive season started in May at Tom’s Tourney in Bruges, with a match against YAKA (the French women’s team – our closest rivals from EUC07). It was a whitewash in YAKA’s favour, but one which ended up having positive consequences as we resolved never to go down that easily again. Our only other losses of the weekend were in a close match against Tequila Boom Boom (10-7) and to Wonderful Copenhagen, which we avenged when we beat them in the final placing game for 5th spot at the tournament.
“Yes, it is expensive and involves a big commitment in the months leading up to the tournament but this is the single biggest thing that can develop the level of play”
Throughout the preparations for WUGC08 we implemented a training schedule based on less frequent team sessions but with maximum turnout and high intensity. This amounted to one team session/weekend per month from February to April and two per month from May to July. Thursday evening sessions began in mid-April for the Dublin players and ran weekly right through until we left for Vancouver. This weeknight training was focused on the national team but was open to any other female players who wanted to come along and improve their skills. Some players took real advantage of this throughout the season and this allowed them to really step up aspects of their game as well as to get an insight into the intensity and commitment involved in representing Ireland. We also ran more relaxed sessions approximately once a month, on Sundays when there wasn’t national team training or a major tournament, aimed at those not on the WUGC team.
We arrived at Windmill Windup in Amsterdam with our full team playing competitively together for the first time! It was a chance for us to play our separate Offence and Defence lines and to test our level against a number of other national teams. We came out strong on offence right from the start and as the weekend wore on our defence became much more confident, aggressive and intelligent. On day one we won three out of four games, leaving us in a strong position and really geared up going into day two. After beating the Spanish National Team without conceding a score in the morning, we had an epic game against Primavera Olandese which ended in sudden death. Our offensive line did what offensive lines do best – scored the point and put us into the quarters! Two convincing wins against Leeds and YAKA gave us a spot in the final where we unfortunately weren’t on top form against a small but strong Italian Women’s Team. We were delighted with our performance and our results overall and still had six weeks to fine-tune our game before WUGC. If 13th didn’t quite reflect the potential of the side, it definitely gave the national team a lot to build upon in the years ahead.
Many European countries opted not to send women’s teams to Vancouver because of the cost, the prospect of getting beaten and the decision to focus on developing women’s ultimate at home. Yes, it is expensive and involves a big commitment in the months leading up to the tournament, but the Irish women’s experience over the past two years has shown that, win or lose, preparing for and competing in a World Championship event is the single biggest thing that can develop the level of play.
Insofar as Trinity Ultimate goes, it’s worth noting that a DUUFC player has won Irish Beginner of the Year for the last three years running. If you see yourself playing for Ireland someday, it’s a great place to start.